The Four Cardinal Virtues - by Marcel de Corte (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Insofar as the four cardinal virtues-prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance-are remembered today, it is in a distorted and partial fashion. Yet the resulting void is at the root of the evils of the "dis-society" in which we live: totalitarianism, unbridled capitalism, social alienation, consumerism, hedonism, and the unchallenged reign of technology. To return to sanity, we need prudence, the virtue directing all the others and indispensable for the determination of appropriate personal and societal actions; justice, particularly essential for the pursuit of the common good; fortitude, required for fidelity to commitments and the sacrifices these entail; and temperance, applying to all moderation in conduct, not just regarding food and drink. Without the recovery of these virtues, the collapse of what remains of our civilization cannot be prevented. The Belgian philosopher Marcel De Corte is a prophetic voice heralding the coming chaos, basing his analyses on Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. His prognosis for the future, however, does not leave us without hope.

Review Quotes

"One of the greatest contemporary Catholic philosophers, an intellectual concerned with politics and attentive to the unique reality of persons and things, humble before what is objective and thus opened to the truth." -Danilo Castellano, Italian philosopher and author whose works include L'aristotelismo cristiano di Marcel de Corte

"One of the greatest twentieth-century masters of the counterrevolution." -Juan Vallet de Goytisolo, Spanish jurist and philosopher, author, among other works, of Ideología, praxis y mito de la tecnocracia

"For centuries, since the moral insights of Plato and Aristotle, the virtues were considered as the heart of morality. It is this which Marcel De Corte, with so many lively and interesting comments on contemporary society, brings to life in this series of books." -Thomas Storck, author, editor and translator, most recently author of Economics: An Alternative Introduction (XIII Books)

"Marcel De Corte, of an unsurpassed intellectual mettle, professed philosophical realism which is in perfect accord with his anti-modernism." -Miguel Ayuso, Professor of Political Science at the Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, and author of books on social and political topics, most recently of ¿El pueblo contra el Estado?